All in good time...

Man, I've got so much more to say but I'm super tired. It involves Randy Brown, who features in this rad little Orchid ad (See Fit? These 'ads' are better than not-so-good photos with product photo 'ads'!) with Van Homan, who also will feature in the post I'm gonna make possibly tomorrow.

But yeah, w00t:


Van Homan and Randy Brown 2009. from Orchid Footwear on Vimeo.

Randy's sig shoe is gonna look like thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis:



Swish. Function low-top.

Pijin Mug

This brought a smile to my face last weekend. Best present ever. Thanks Christian!

Hopefully a thing of the past...

...at least for a few months? Almost out of the January/Winter-related woods.

Adi Gilbert.

You might recognise the name from his work with 2&8 and various other companies, but I just saw his folio site as a result of Taliban Tom's blog, and there's some cool stuff on there. If you're into creative stuff, scope it!

Finally...

They're almost here (They come with a cover, too). The new Eclat pivotals - click that link to check out their new Supreme-esque stem too. The new Eclat line is going to be so good...

One More Brew deadline...

You may have heard of a little video project called "One More Brew"? 10 UK filmers have been tasked to come up with a 5 minute video edit of riding antics over the cold winter months. This is no easy feat considering the dismal weather recently and finding spots/people willing to brave the slippery outdoors to pull off some stunts on 2 wheels.

Deadline is by the end of the week and if you're in Southampton and can do the odd trick on 2 wheels, get into contact with Mr Joel Nicholls! He will be out and about, trying to squeeze more footage onto his video camera...



Contact Joel on :
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=852400371
http://www.myspace.com/buildbmx
joelnicholls@hotmail.com

Glow In The Dark Mirco Particles!

Got glow in the dark pedals? Or glow in the dark grips? Kinda gets annoying when the stuff loses it's charge and you have to recharge it again by holding it up to the light.

Well... not anymore! A US company has invented glowing micro particles (called Litrospheres) which can glow for 12 years without recharging! I'm not sure how they got the 12 year figure from. Unless they started testing their first batch 12 years ago...

A long time coming.

I, like a good few people I know, used to constantly buy BMX magazines. Ride, Dig, Cream and any other lesser known BMX magazines I could find - even Ride US (and that's really saying something. I'm talking about before they made their more recent improvement in content so that interviews weren't purely photo-based and might actually contain some kind of text somewhere in the entire issue). I'd buy things I knew were probably going to be bad just because I enjoyed reading about something I was fully into, and it was cool to see other people's opinions on it. Recently, I've bought about 2 magazines in the past few months (Both of which were Dig). I used to buy Ride every single month without fail, then read it cover to cover, but I simply can't be bothered any more. Paying £3.40 to read the inane rants from unoriginal writers stating the tediously obvious gets pretty old pretty fast. The photography was still as top quality as ever, and the majority of the interviews and features were good, but who actually cares about what "Certain People" (no need to make it personal...) think about other "Certain People"? Similarly, why have sections of magazines dedicated to talking about internet-based news (Especially when they're as accurate as last month's issue was, such as the section about H-Man's bike "getting stolen" and "getting it back" from Billy at Brixton, when the guy who's bike was stolen was nothing to do with H-Man at all, and there was a hell of a lot more to it than that (Not to mention it being pretty old by then, anyway...))? I know that's essentially what I'm doing here, but this is free, and I'm not really in the same position of authority and power that magazines are. The internet is threatening print magazines more than ever, and while magazines continue to squander their advantages over internet sites, it seems like they're becoming closer and closer to being over-run. Complaining about a lack of originality in the way "Kids" ride today seems pretty ironic when the article you're saying it in is pretty much a template of every other "I hate the way BMX is today" article.

In completely unrelated news, here's a completely hilarious, incredibly original and well informed piece from 20negative. Oh, wait... But seriously - I don't mind people talking about the 'negative' sides of BMX, but at least make it relevant to BMX. iPod shuffles, skinny jeans, tight t-shirts and fluorescent Nikes have long been the staple uniform of the scenesters in the majority of the UK, so attempting to use that to take the piss out of BMXers seems pretty weak. Similarly "lol, bikes are getting smaller and lower, lol" got pretty old when people started having a go at Fly when they released the Tierra and Blackeye were talking about the Cory Jarman signature frame. That was at least a year ago...

Anyway, that's enough from bad-tempered Mark for the day.

EDIT: One last thing - I should probably point out the newest Ride "Interview" issue is actually pretty good.

Whooooa...

The new Ride site might not be the best looking thing in the world, but content wise they're certainly doing alright. For example, this ridiculous video from Federal flow rider Shayn Steels (Reminds me of Joel's riding a lot?). What the hell?! Federal's flow team are nuts...


Federal Bikes - Shayn Steels from Slack BMX from Federal BMX on Vimeo.

Here's the overspill photos from the 3 Tom's Malaga trip (Video's posted below somewhere...), and here's Garrett Reynolds, Dennis Enarson and Gary Young's runs from the Simpel Session, as well as their Finals vid. BMX is being taken to the next level - how do you do tricks that hard, that consistently, and that well?




Jammin' Simpel Session - Finals Highlights! >>

Country Bikes Products Sneak Peak

Carlos returned in the afternoon clutching some Country Bikes prototype forks and bars. For those of you that don't remember, they're a bike company based in Germany... who've not really made anything for a few years (not that I can remember anyway).

First impression from the prototypes are very good. Everything looks nice and neat. The forks are a nice slim design, and weigh in under 2 pounds. Bars are light at a tad over 600g.*

I'm not sure the Excitation fork would live up to it's name though. Can a fork ever cause excitement? Hmmm... However, I do like the way the bottom of the forks are cut away at an angle and the dropouts are really small but just big enough to run pegs if your that way inclined.

As for the bars, just where did they get the name from? They have a sticker with a plucked chicken on the side and are called the Hendlbars. Get it? They're light, have holes drilled at the grip section like the MacNeil Silencer bars and have quite a lot of backsweep (don't know how much exactly as I don't normally carry a protractor in my pocket).

These are still prototypes for now, but it'd be interesting to see how well they hold up after a few sessions down Hoglands...

Now if Country Bikes can come up with a sensible price and good warranty, these are looking like a very good alternative to some of the more expensive parts from the American companies. Expect more info in the coming months. Parts will hopefully see their way into the shops around April time...

* I don't know why, but I've got used to weighing frames, forks and complete bikes in imperial units and everything else in metric! It's a bit retarded but seems kinda natural at the same time...

Simpel Session

Yet again, wish I'd gone. Would've been cool to have seen some of some of this awesomeness from the finals "In real life". Garrett Reynolds. What.

Better posts soon, I promise!

Pijin RPRZNT

Aw yeah!


Up In Smoke Tour Trailer from Seventies Distribution on Vimeo.

Procrastination.

Well, the Internet, although being the subject of my essay, is also giving me plenty of procrastination fuel too. Downer.

Anyway, here are a few things that have occupied my time instead of writing:

Lloyd Wright getting more clips, and indeed the ender, in a Federal Flow video? That should probably tell the dudes at Seventies something...


Street Phire x Federal Flow + Lloyd Trip from streetphire on Vimeo.

In related news - Band of Horses: Yeah.

FBM sent their "3 Toms" to Malaga for some filming and sun, and this video is what they came up with. Really nicely filmed (Looks great in HD too), nicely edited, and some ridiculous riding from all of 'em ('specially Tom Blyth - if I don't ride for a week I feel rusty as hell, he's out for months and months, and comes back like that?!).


Channel 4Down BMX :: FBM 3 Toms In Malaga from Channel 4Down on Vimeo.

Ride UK have clicked on various toggle boxes in Wordpress to create their new site. Not really keen on it (Clusterf- well, you get the idea), but it's not my call. Similarly in "Not keen" news, this is from their upcoming "UK's most influential riders" piece. It involves Corby, a load of park dudes, and is features the 20 most influential riders? Hmm, we'll see. I'm foolishly hoping that this time, a "These guys are really good" thing from Ride doesn't exclusively refer to a select few park riders. One day...

Still, here's Harry.

What the hell, Mark?

I know, I know - bold claims about consistent updates and less than 2 weeks into the New Year I've missed repeated daily deadlines. Well, I do have a reason/excuse - my friend's laptop died and he's borrowing mine to meet his slightly pressing coursework deadlines, so I'm netless. "But Mark", I hear you cry, "You're talking to us now?" Well, the answer to that is that I'm currently in Dan's house using his internet. But why have I chosen to be slightly antisocial and type on a computer whilst he's cooking chilli in the other room?

Three words:



I wasn't too sure what to expect from the new S&M vid. Please Kill Me didn't really do much for me, but their current team line up features rad dudes such as Randy Brown, Matt Beringer, Cam Wood, Tony Cardona, Josh Stricker and many more (Including the surprising good Jeff Landister (Spelling?)), and it was being edited by Jordan Utley, the guy behind That's It (Which you need to immediately buy if you haven't already, it's way, way too good). This combination is, to put it mildly, a winner.

I should probably preface this by saying that recently, I've been avoiding BMX videos in general. I've been riding a hell of a lot, and found that I'd much rather be actually partaking in riding rather than watching it, and have been doing as such. So yeah, the fact that I watched this video and thoroughly enjoyed it and was entertained by it says a lot. At the end of Cameron Wood's awesome section, the credits began to hand-roll (You need to watch it to understand), and I had to check the clock. I thought it had been a really short video, and it seemed kinda weird, but the video actually clocked in at 35 minutes of solid riding before you get to the credits section. That's a fairly decent amount of riding footage from one of the most diverse teams in BMX today, and it certainly passes quickly - in a good way.

This 'review' is fairly rambling now, so I'll leave it with just saying you really need to buy a copy of this video. It's £14.XY (I dunno what it is with the VAT shenanigans), and it's easily accessible in the online store by clicking this link.

Buy it now!

GSport Ratchet

Joel got his new ratchet hub today... first impressions are very good. It looks and feels chunky, solid and well made. Converting from right to left hand drive was pretty straight forward - didn't need any tools as everything just pulled apart with a bare pair of hands and no brute force. Weight was a bit hefty though, 568g on the Pijin scales.

Let's just see how well it holds up after Joel has chucked it down a few 10 sets..

KP+JK=Bueno

UGP Welcomes KP and Jeff K from Vinylbmx on Vimeo.

Spotted this little vid over on Orchid - Jeff K and Kevin Porter's "Welcome to the team" vid for UGP. Pretty interesting stuff in it, check it out!

In Orchid related news, LittleDevil are now done with their 'til-now recently updated blog. It makes sense after the company's funeral, but there we go. Good luck with future projects!

Miscellaneous...

Was flicking through the new Sidewalk magazine last night, and they had a pretty sweet story from the Vans China tour. They made a mention of a Podcast of the trip on the Vans site, and it features some pretty amazing spots, some pretty amazing skating, and some pretty amazing filming/editing. I know, I know - it's skating, but at the same time the stuff they're doing is nuts, it's super nicely filmed, and is well worth checking out. Click here to check it out on the Vans site (Last one of p3 of the vids, and first one on p4), or click here to check it out in iTunes (Scroll down a bit). Just search for the China Tour and China Tour Action vids to see it. Bit of a faff, but that's life I guess!

Also, talking of "faff", Red Bull wanted to do some fancy stuff for the New Years celebrations, so they got a guy to "Backflip" (I use that term incredibly, incredibly lightly, bearing in mind he drives into a jump with a flicky launchy thing on it. Tech.) a "Truck", and a guy to jump up onto a 100fT replica of the Arc de Trioumphe and then gap back down. The motox stuff's pretty nuts, the truck stuff - not so. Click here to stream the vids.

Skapegoat 3

Streeeeeeet! (Also park 'n' trails too, for you non-street fans, haha) Seen over on Defgrip.


skapegoat 3 from VInnie Sammon on Vimeo.

New Stijn Staal edit.

Yet more wintery BMX dedication, this time in the form of a self-filmed edit by Mr. Stijn Staal.


Stijn Staal, 2 days of self filming. from Stijn on Vimeo.

I wanna go to Rotterdam again!